“That’s one of the things that I always just look back on is a deal is never over until it’s way, way over. They’re done, they say absolutely not and they go on. But a not right now is not no.” – Carl Sajous in today’s Tip 1573
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes in the form of a clip from my most recent interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Carl Sajous from Fringe. Check this out:
Carl Sajous: My favorite sales story is one where we still didn’t close the deal, but the relationship allowed me to subsequently close multiple deals. And so investing in that relationship allowed me to get introduced into different organizations and then ended up closing those. I’ll omit the name of the company, but we went through this 20-month sales cycle here in SaaS, right here in Fringe. And that’s a pretty long sales cycle as it relates to the lifestyle benefits space. It’s a pretty long sales cycle. And there are a lot of different iterations and a lot of different aspects of the journey, adding in legal and those sorts of things. And really at the 25th hour, it just didn’t happen. But we were so invested and we were in a close relationship as a way to alleviate the pain of losing that particular deal because of a decision that just happened at a level above my prospect. She felt like to make it right by me, she recommended three other people at very large organizations as well, and they ended up becoming customers. And so it’s one of those things that there’s a statement like, Man, I can’t win for losing, right? But this is an opportunity for me to not necessarily emphasize the result. I wasn’t able to get close that deal, the initial result. But my goal was, again, to see if she was going to reach her arm around me at a bar. And she did so, so much that she was able to refer me. And that tripled what my original deal would have been with that organization initially. So I say that’s probably my most recent and probably my favorite.
Scott Ingram: Yeah, that’s awesome. And you answer my next question, which would have been, well, was the net result bigger than had you actually won the deal? It was you built that relationship, you showed enough value, your ultimate outcome was 3X. I would imagine you said something great. I don’t remember it exactly about something about there’s no expiration on forever. I’m sure you’ll get that original one back at some point, right?
Carl Sajous: Yeah, there’s no rush on forever. I say it all the time. And so you will circle back and get that original one. You’re absolutely right. But there’s no rush on that. You know what I mean? We’re now at a level where she’s invested in a lot of ways. From her relationship equity perspective, she referred three people that she built strong relationships with away from she and I’s relationship. And so she put that on the line to refer them to me. And so now we’re locked in in a way where if we end up making it happen at the company she’s at now, then great. But I will guarantee if you were to go to another organization, we’d be right there behind her to get them to implement it.
Scott Ingram: And you’ve also got this built-in surround strategy, right? Because now you can check in with them in a year and say, okay, so how’s that program that you bought going? Because I can show you what three of your peers are actually experiencing because they implemented us. And maybe it’s time to make the right decision.
Carl Sajous: That’s right. Yeah. I mean, the proof is always in the pudding, right? So you got to give them some opportunities. And that’s another thing in terms of follow-up, right? If I know that an organization said no or not right now for a particular thing, I almost like file that away. I compartmentalize that. And I look through that often. I really do. I put it in a file and I actually look through what are the reasons why they say no or not right now. And so then I continuously read those so that when something happens or we add a new feature or we add a new partnership, I’m like, I just saw that. Where do I need to follow up on that on? And hey, this was an issue that you needed solved. This is a problem that you are looking to solve. I have the solution for you now. And it wasn’t about like, hey, here’s the transaction. Let me go ahead and win this for you. It was really like, hey, there’s a problem and I have the solution. And that’s one of the things that I always just look back on is a deal is never over until it’s way, way over. They’re done, they say absolutely not and they go on. But a not right now is not no.
Scott Ingram: For a link to my full conversation with Carl and to connect with him on LinkedIn, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1573. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!